The Shocking True Story Behind The Secret Gem Of BNAT 16

One of the highlights of this year's Butt-Numb-A-Thon was yet another choice selection from BNAT regular contributor Gary Huggins: Darktown After Dark. The clip was taken from the 1980 film Loose Shoes (AKA Coming Attractions and Quackers). Loose Shoes, an uneven Kentucky Fried Movie rip-off, is best known for featuring Bill Murray in the sketch "Three Chairs for Lefty." The title Loose Shoes, however, is pulled from the Darktown After Dark segment, an insane Cab Calloway spoof. The chorus of the big band number in the short - "Tight pussy, loose shoes and a warm place to shit" - not only had BNAT attendees singing and clapping along, it also has a wild political context.

In 1976, Gerald Ford's Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz (above) got his 15 minutes of fame when he was quoted by Rolling Stone reporter (and former Nixon staffer) John Dean during an interview with Pat Boone at the Republican National Convention. The excerpt from Rolling Stone is below:

Pat [Boone] posed a question: “John and I were just discussing the appeal of the Republican party. It seems to me that the party of Abraham Lincoln could and should attract more black people. Why can’t that be done?” This was a fair question for the secretary, who is also a very capable politician.

“I’ll tell you why you can’t attract coloreds,” the secretary proclaimed as his mischievous smile returned. “Because colored only wants three things. You know what they want?” he asked Pat.

Pat shook his head no; so did I.

“I’ll tell you what coloreds want. It’s three things: first, a tight pussy; second, loose shoes; and third, a warm place to shit. That's all!”

Pat gulped twice.

If that weren't enough to make you hate Earl Butz, he was also featured in the documentary King Corn. His legacy from his tenure as Secretary of Agriculture was to initiate the corn subsidy and pave the way for Monsanto and big agriculture to kill the small family farms of America. While he might have had the best of intentions to stabilize the corn market, it didn't turn out that way. Butz has another classy quote accredited to him - speaking to small rural farmers, he said, "Get big or get out."

Piling insult to injury, Butz also ridiculed Pope Paul VI at the 1974 World Food Conference. In reference to the pope's stance on birth control, Butz said (in a fake Italian accent), "He no playa the game, he no maka the rules."

Within a week of his "tight pussy" quote in Rolling Stone, Butz was forced to resign.

For those who attended BNAT and those just seeing it now, I hope you enjoy the expanded context of Darktown After Dark!

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Tim is the founder of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, co-founder of Fantastic Fest and was named by the Austin American Statesman as "one of the most unusual CEOs in Texas history." He likes to eat really good food, drink really good beer and sing really bad karaoke but is getting slightly better at it.